A Lot of Crazy Layers...

This page titled "Who am I?" was created during Orly Avineri's Journal workshop on “Attachment Theory ” last Sunday. It was a trial run of her upcoming class at Journalfest in Oregon. I felt really honored to be a participant. I got to meet some amazing artists and create some fun journal pages with attachments. The two glacine envelopes contain photos of my mother and father.

This journal is a new one for me, Orly told me "You work BIG! Need a big journal!" So here is a bigger journal. Click on any image for a larger view...

This is a view of the first page with Blythe Danner quote. There are LOTS of layers on this page... It all started with four pages of different writing, two from a novel, one with Hebrew text, one with Asian text. Then layers and layers of paint, even a doily throw in for good measure. We sure all had a lot of fun in class that day. Even Orly liked her page she did.

This page has the packing tape transfer of "airships"
This is a look at the completed pages from Orly Avineri's journaling class on Tuesday October 13th at Harmony Works. We were working with layers. The quote says "I think I have a lot of crazy layers." by Blythe Danner.

9.21 Abstraction

9.21 Abstraction
Originally uploaded by bkasstle

From my Wednesday evening class with Orly Avineri. Abstraction, We watched the Lifetime movie "Georgia O'Keeffe" & researched her art online and on youtube. Actually in class I had a lot going on in my head and did not enjoy the exercise but after I got home and worked on it today I do like my result. Click on the image for a larger view. Go out and use your experience to make art!

Long Journey

Long Journey
Originally uploaded by bkasstle

Playful Journey unfolded. This is from my first class with Orly and her Saturday morning Art Journaling group. This cronicles my journey from Kalispell, Montana in 1984 to present day, living in Long Beach, Calfiornia, with a few stops along the way....

Remember, click on any image for a larger view...

Buried Treasure

My internet friend Seth Apter over at The Altered Page is doing a collaborative project called "Buried Treasure" in which invites bloggers to find special features of their past blog entries and repost their favorite posts. I have started blogging relatively recently so my favorite post is actually a very recent post. I have very recently taken up being creative and expressing myself through "art". I actually believe I did was not fully aware of how important creating and expressing myself until I took Mary Ann Moss's "Pure Experimentation: Stencilry" class over on Dispatch From LA. It freed me of many of my fears of color, and and my need for perfection. It allowed me to just play... And it freed me to fail and just spray over something I did not like and start all over again from the same piece of paper. More importantly it is just plain and simple fun in the sun... Increasingly these spray paint art features are becoming more and more personal for me.

Here is the original post "This is a some artwork done with a stencil I cut of an old picture of my Great Grandpa Barley on my father's side. I still need to do some work on it and I need to get better at scanning these but you get the idea..."

This time I have decided to include the original photo of my great grand father Barley.

My blog has led me to make some amazing artist friends I may never meet but their support is very important to me. Thank you for stopping by.

Learning...

Brandi, Tim and I

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to take two Tim Holtz classes up in Elk Grove, near Sacramento at Stampers Corner. It was a blast! I went with my good friend Brandi, we had a great time. Tim is an amazing teacher and Mario did an amazing job keeping us organized. The staff at Stampers Corner did an amazing job with the event! Brandi and I took two amazing classes, "Exploring Alcohol Inks" on Saturday and "Nostalgic Metal Memories" on Sunday. The Sunday class was 4 hours long! It was like two classes in one. The first class was about making hand made books. The second part was learning about working with embossed metals from

Ten Seconds Studio. We had a fantastic time.

My first handmade book and the sample we made during the Exploring Alcohol inks class.

A detail of the cover of my handmade book, made with embossed metal and Tim Holtz embellishments.

And last a detail of my hand stitched spine of my book, using Tim's "kettle stitch".

And today I signed up for an art journaling class from Orly Avineri at the South Bay School for Adults. I am really excited to start the class next week!